As technology advances in the semiconductor field, devices such as processors incorporate ever-increasing amounts of circuitry. Over time, processor designs have evolved from a collection of independent integrated circuits (ICs), to a single integrated circuit, to multicore processors that include multiple processor cores within a single IC package. As time goes on, ever greater numbers of cores and related circuitry are being incorporated into processors and other semiconductors.
Multicore processors are being extended to include additional functionality by incorporation of other functional units within the processor. One issue that arises is that the different circuitry can consume differing amounts of power based on their workloads. However, suitable mechanisms to ensure that these different units have sufficient power do not presently exist.